Static Layers
| Product name | Description | Outputs | Source | |||||
Major Rivers | Layer showing the major rivers.
| Map | ||||||
Country Boundaries | Country Boundaries is a static map showing the country borders taken from the Geographic Information System of the European Commission (GISCO). Important note: the GISCO dataset can be considered authoritative only for the EU28 and EFTA countries. The dataset outside Europe is based on UN GAUL (Global Administrative Unit Layers). The boundaries depicted therein normally (but not always) reflect the UN position. However, GAUL does not have an official authoritative status either, e.g. it is not endorsed by the UN Security Council. There are numerous disputed territories around the world and GISCO does not engage in providing an official position on most of them. Disclaimer: The designations employed and the presentation of material on the map do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the European Union concerning the legal status of any country, territory or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.
| Map | Administrative units - Geographic Information System of the European Commission Year 2024, 01M, EPSG: 4326 | |||||
Major river basins | Layer showing major river basins of the world.
| Map | (datasets downloaded in 2023) Please note that Major river basins and LISFLOOD Drainage Network were derived from different elevation datasets, therefore small inconsistencies between the two layers are possible. | |||||
GloFAS lakes and reservoirs and reservoir impact | Lakes (the largest 463) and reservoirs (the largest 667) as included in the GloFAS model set up. Selection criteria are:
| Map | GloFAS v5 reservoir dataset includes reservoirs with storage capacity ≥100 hm3, catchment area ≥500 km2, and degree of regulation ≥0.8. The total number is 1486 (an increase of +799 compared to GloFAS v4). 220 reservoirs included in global datasets had degree of regulation <0.8 and were modelled as lakes. The total of 1486 (+ 220 modelled as lakes) represents over 80% of the global total storage (an increase of over 20% compared to GloFASv4). The GloFAS v5 lake dataset includes lakes with volume ≥100 hm3, catchment area ≥500 km2, surface area ≥50 km2. The total number is 1230 (1010 lakes plus 220 reservoirs modeled as lakes; an increase of +767 compared to GloFASv4). | Map | For reservoirs: Global Reservoir and Dams (GRanD), the Global Dam Watch (GDW, which in fact constitutes the updated version of GRanD), and the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database (GLWD), the latter being a legacy from GloFAS v4. For lakes: mostly HydroLAKES, followed by GLWD, and GDW (reservoirs with Degree Of Regulation < 0.8 were modelled as lakes). | |||
Flood hazard 100 year return period | Inundated areas for flood events with a return period of 100 years, based on GloFAS climatology. Permanent water bodies derived from the Global Lakes and Wetlands Database and from the Natural Earth lakes map.
| Map | JRC Flood inundation maps catalogue | |||||
LISFLOOD Drainage Network (previously known as Upstream Area) | Drainage network of the LISFLOOD model. Rivers are shown as they are represented in the model. Lines show connections between the model pixels above 250 km2 drainage area. The larger drainage area is represented by both darkening colours and increasing line widths.
| Map | NA | |||||
Administrative Regions | Administrative regions merged using NUTS-2 or NUTS-3 classification from EUROSTAT and the region classification from GADM.
| Map | ||||||
GloFAS lakes and reservoirsPhased out from the implementation of version 5 (2026.12.05) | Lakes (the largest 463) and reservoirs (the largest 667) as included in the GloFAS model set up. Selection criteria are:
| Map | ||||||
Reservoir impactPhased out from the implementation of version 5 (2026.12.05) | The map illustrates the potential impact of reservoirs included in GloFAS on river discharge at global scale. To provide a continuous estimate of the potential reservoir effect along river reaches, the ratio of reservoir volume to mean annual discharge was calculated for each grid cell. This ratio makes use of the upstream cumulative reservoir capacity [m3] and the cell-specific total volume of annual natural river discharge [m3].
| Map | NA |
